jumpingjack

Howdy all!

We will be traveling to San Francisco from Oregon via I-5, to 199, and then to 101. Are there any great wildlife sightseeing detours we might want to make during this trip that you know of? I'm especially interested in ocean wildlife. I know it is apparently good whale watching time but I am curious if it there are good places to catch maybe sea lions and other ocean-going animals that might be gathered on a beach. It seems it might be a little cold this time of year for such a thing but I want to ask while I am in this "neck of the woods".

Oh, and any entertaining detour suggestions based on my route are always welcome, wildlife or no wildlife!

I should be sure to mention we will be hitting Redwood National Park, Safari West, and NAPA valley.

Thanks!

elnap29

For non-oceanic wildlife, Redwood National Park is pretty great. The elk are beautiful. Jedediah Smith State Park is great for birds and smaller creatures. It is also across the street from the ocean. For sea lions and elephant seals, etc, I'd recommend a visit to Point Reyes National Seashore.

spirobulldog

See Stout Grove in Jedediah Smith Park. I agree with Point Reyes, might see Elk. Try to time it with low tide and go tidepooling @ McClures Beach. Elk frequent that area.

jumpingjack

Oooo...both look like great options. Awesome recommendations.

I found this link that might help anyone searching in the future for Point Reyes specifically.

http://www.nps.gov/pore/planyourvisi...fe_viewing.htm

spirobulldog

I don't really like birds or consider them wildlife. What an idiot, I know. But Pt Reyes is excellent if you are into birds.

jumpingjack

haha, I am kind of in the same boat as you. Birds are rats in the sky to me. I'm not incredibly interested in them either. It looks like there is a boat load of other "real" (hahaha) wildlife there.

My grandma used to watch birds forever but they just look like feather covored high twitch robots to me. Welcome to the avian hater club!

spirobulldog

I believe it is Roosevelt Elk that are in The Redwoods. We didn't see any. You would also want to see Fern Canyon.

Tule Elk is what you will find in Pt Reyes. I would guess we saw 100+. These are the smallest of elk species. They are around Tomales Point. The McClures beach was really cool. Saw tons of starfish, mussels, etc. Not sure what a lot of it was. Coordinate this with low-tide. We did see Sealions, and you can see these in the lighthouse area. We were there in March of last year.

We were in The Redwoods in July of this past year.

Muir Woods is an interesting spot, but it isn't as spectacular as the redwoods.

Sea Lion Cave is a place with a ton of Sealion on the Oregon Coast. I don't know if they are there in the winter or just summer.

Ronda

Just south of Half Moon Bay (south of San Francisco) is Ano Nuevo State Park where you can see elephant seals. This is the right time of the year and the beaches will be covered with them. You might need a reservation however. The beach is a short relatively flat walk.

http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=523

razzledazzle

I should be sure to mention we will be hitting Redwood National Park, Safari West, and NAPA valley.

Don't think you will see much "wildlife" in Napa,
especially of the "ocean" variety...

Pt Reyes is the best idea, I am extremely biased about the place. Get yourselves out to the Lighthouse and/or Chimney Rock areas for the best chances to spot whales.
Do know you cannot drive yourselves
out there via Sir Francis Drake Blvd.on weekends or holidays-you will need to hop on the shuttle.
"Due to the high volume of traffic out to the Lighthouse and Chimney Rock areas during the gray whale migration, the park will be operating a shuttle bus system from the Drakes Beach parking lot (usually from New Year's to Easter each year on weekends and holidays - weather permitting). Sir Francis Drake Boulevard from South Beach to the Lighthouse and Chimney Rock areas WILL BE CLOSED during shuttle operating hours. For more information call the Bear Valley Visitor Center at 415-464-5100."

Also know that all Lighthouse facilities are closed on
Tuesdays and Wednesday. It is well worth your time to
hike the steps down to the Lighthouse and visit the
Lens Room, especially if there is a knowledgeable
Parks guard on duty. Note: It can be VERY windy out here.

"Lighthouse Visitor Center
The Lighthouse Visitor Center is open:
Thursday through Monday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The Lighthouse stairs, the exhibits in the lower Lighthouse chamber, and the Equipment Building are open (weather permitting):
Thursday through Monday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The Lens Room (the main chamber of the Lighthouse, which contains the Fresnel lens and clockwork mechanism) is open (as weather & staffing permit):
Thursday through Monday, 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Pity you don't care for birds. Don't look up out at Pt. Reyes and you won't be bothered by the occasional bald eagle, pelican or Peregrine falcon. After you take a peek to observe for whales in their ocean migration or sea lions at the beaches, be cautious as you may witness great egrets and blue herons.
Just to let you know.

R5

jumpingjack

Some GREAT stuff here. Thanks so much everyone. No way I can go wrong here! Thanks for all the thorough info too Razzle...I might even look up every now and then and catch a glimpse of a bird I suppose.

jumpingjack

Alright, just completed it all! Man, what an amazing trip. Everyone must do this in their lifetime (101 and 1 along the coast and through redwoods)!

First lets start with the bummers so we can then end on a good note.

Bummer #1 - It rained the entire trip. The bright side is it never really downpoured and because it was 40 degrees warmer than home we could care less!
Bummer #2 - No whales! Curses! Despite being the height of the season and driving clear down the coast for 3 days with ours eyes fixed on the water and then out to the lighthouse at Point Reyes, not a single darn whale. The lighthouse ranger said they had spotted 59 total whales there since the "season" started and 0 the day we were there (it was almost 4 pm by this time)
Bummer #3 - Storms whipped out our Safari West. Big time bummer. They said they were suffering major flooding.
Bummer #4 - Because of all the storms being whipped up in the area, the sea was quite choppy. A ranger at Point Reyes strongly recommended we not try catching low tide on the days we were there.

Wow, lots of bummers. But hey, the Uppers trump them.

Upper #1 - Redwoods were AMAZING. We hit EVERY park along 101 and every scenic byway that was open. If felt like we had each park to ourselves! You just can't put a price on that.
Upper #2 - Awesome and spectacular views of the coast for darn near 3 days straight. We took our time and stopped at only 10% of the awesome looking pull-outs/coastal accesses...and that is a lot!
Upper #3 - Harbor Seals! After two straight days of staring at the water looking for non-bird life, we at last saw Harbor Seals (we believe anyhow) soon after Point Arena. By the time the day was done, we estimate we saw probably 50,000. They were everywhere! The only negative was we were not able to get a view at any pull outs where we could really see their faces/bodies. My camera's zoom was just a little too weak to catch them in detail. That said, just seeing the incredible masses of them bobbing off the shore was really cool.
Upper #4 - Tule Elk and Deer. Saw them at every turn in Point Reyes which was cool.
Upper #5 - This is a big one. We saw some BIG freeking elephant seals at Point Reyes. Fresh off the disappointment over the whales we headed to the Chimney Rock Elephant Seal Outlook. I was just starting on the short little trail when I saw two bulls in the water whomping on each other! I sprinted to the deck overlook where I startled a docent who was sitting there. He hopped up and very kindly offered me a view from his binoculars...amazing stuff. These two were big and just whaling on each other like nothing else in nature. Blood was in the water...very graphic, very brutal, but nature in it's rawest form. By the time the two parted ways, it had lasted 25 minutes according to the docent's guess. One seal headed to the beach victoriously, and very gingerly. The other just floated offshore. Low and behold, 20 minutes after the fight broke up, TWO different fights broke out! These two broke up much quicker but were cool to see non-the-less.
I should also mention that there were quite a lot of baby seals lying around and they were very cute and sounded like a weird monkeys when they were "barking". I also need to mentioned that the docent was great and informative during all of this. We spent at least one hour just watching the soap opera unravel in front of us.

SO, lots of things we COULD be bummed about, but I could care less. The positives were WAY too cool to keep us down in any shape or form.

Thank you all SOOO much for all your suggestions! They truly molded a trip of a lifetime!

spirobulldog

Glad you enjoyed Pt Reyes and The Redwoods. In the latest Fodors addition, the Lighthouse photo is one I took, with my wife walking down the stairs. We didn't see any whales either, this was March 10 last year. There is a hike to a waterfall @ Pt Reyes, that I want to do next time. I bet it would be going good right now.

Did you do Fern Canyon in the Redwoods? We didn't, and I reall regret it.

If you have never been tidepooling, do try it sometime.

jumpingjack

Ah! I knew i was forgetting something! That would have been another bummer. They closed the road to Fern Canyon due to high winds. Man. This just means we will have to do it all again some time soon! Too bad.